Last Wednesday, police swarmed 67th Street in southwest Albuquerque. At the time, police said after Santiago Chavez flashed a gun at a neighbor, he barricaded himself inside his home, caused a SWAT standoff and then 15 hours later, took his own life.

However, police said bullets flew even before Chavez turned the gun on himself.

"He opened fire at the officers and fired multiple rounds at the group of officers as they were close enough to give him that advantage to do that," said Albuquerque Police Department Officer Tasia Martinez. "While they were retreating, one of the officers, Drew Bader, who is a SWAT officer, responded with gunfire."

APD kept the public updated throughout the SWAT standoff, sending out four news releases, none of which mentioned that the suspect and SWAT officers had exchanged gunfire.

"It's actually in a situation like that it's not going to be a priority of that to disseminate that information to the media," Martinez said.

She said nobody was hurt during the shootout and none of the police bullets struck Chavez, who turned his gun on himself about seven hours later.

"I didn't know that we had exchanged gunfire until the morning," Martinez said. "I don't feel like there's anything we could have done differently. Certainly when media has come forth asking about this incident as you are now today we've been forthcoming in providing that information to you."

Martinez said that until now, APD has only been asked how the SWAT standoff ended.

Police said the officer who pulled the trigger has not been placed on leave.

A Justice Department civil rights investigation has concluded that the Ferguson Police Department and the city's municipal court engaged in a "pattern and practice" of discrimination against African Americans, targeting them disproportionately for tr...